An Analysis of the Hidden Misogyny and Racism in Disney Star Wars | Video Essay

okay here's the deal this is an incredibly long video so just give me 60 seconds to give you a quick synopsis and if you do not agree that there is a problem here stop watching the Star Wars sequel trilogy is a Trojan horse claiming to be progressive and empowering towards women and minorities while very subtly doing the opposite the minorities are treated like jokes and relegated to the side plot as the main focus is on the white people they say the forces for everyone but show that only white people deserve to use it the main heroine is subtly portrayed to be 100% dependent on her male superior for her powers and she cries more than any other lead character in any other film reinforcing that women are both physically and mentally weak there are more close-ups of jewelry than in any other film more instances of the heroin being soaking wet than any other film sexually charged symbolism everywhere twice the heroine is held down and mind raped by two different men then after more verbal abuse she develops feelings for her first rapist you know the man with a phallic-shaped lightsaber that has a red vein running down the side that slowly rises to point at her while she's on her knees in front of him alright if you're still watching that means I have earned two hours of your time and yes that is how long it takes to go over the exorbitant amount of evidence that there is and at the end of the video if you agree with me that there is a problem here you have earned something - the responsibility to help me spread this message I'm a very small channel less than 500 subs no one will ever see this and nothing will change if you don't help me bring attention to it if enough of you subscribe and share this video we'll have a chance to enact real change so my friends let's officially start the video and pay close attention many examples are very subtle and each is just a tiny part of a really big picture there are two choices either the 100 plus examples of misogyny and racism that I'm about to show you were done intentionally or they were inserted subconsciously by misogynist and racist writers directors and producers either way this is a problem and Hollywood needs to change [Music] Wow oh you gotta be kidding me [Music] [Music] this will be a very controversial video it will make you completely reevaluate your interpretation of the sequel trilogy and not in a good way many of you will hate the theory I'm presenting and think the evidence is laughable but for you to understand what I am seeing please listen with an open mind and weigh the evidence as a combined whole when viewed individually each example I provide obviously it means nothing on its own but when considered together there are so many examples of hidden misogyny and racism in the sequels that we can no longer just assume that they were accidents even if you're not a Star Wars fan and don't follow what's going on in the franchise you've probably still seen the dozens of articles and blog posts and newscasts calling out Star Wars fans for being toxic misogynist racist man babies but there's a sinister secret that they're hoping you won't notice and it's that either Lucasfilm or maybe even Disney themselves is intentionally creating the fan backlash and even worse there's sufficient evidence that shows they are even adding in a subtle anti-feminist messages within the film's themselves now I want to tell you upfront this topic won't be cut and dry you won't see any 100% positive proof that what I'm going to accuse Lucasfilm Disney of is true all I can do is show you my evidence explain my reasoning and see if you reach the same conclusion that I have either dozens upon dozens of coincidences happen across multiple films or these weren't coincidences and Lucasfilm Disney had a secret agenda all along first off we need to establish two crucial details number one simply including women or minorities in your film is not inherently a good thing and number two subliminal messages are actually a real thing so first off you should never automatically celebrate a female lead in a movie poorly portrayed female characters can hurt real-life gender equality even many beloved classic films have very damaging racial and sexist messages to their story poorly portrayed minority characters can hurt real-life racial equality meet me at the zoo in the morning at 9 o'clock [Music] introducing the first Asian female character in a Star Wars movie isn't in itself something to be celebrated because the actors sex and race don't define her characters merit her characters merit is defined by her dialogue actions and by how other characters treat her and when it comes to how women and minorities are portrayed we need to take a very close look at not just the obvious messages but the subtle ones as well especially since these films are being heralded as progressive and positive for women because yes subliminal messages are real and they are used all of the time here's a link to a study where they proved that playing German music made customers buy more German wine and playing French music made customers buy more French wine although to be more accurate subliminal means that it's below our ability to perceive superluminal is the term that should be used it means it's something we can perceive but that we usually don't unless it's pointed out to us we hear the German music if you asked us we could tell you it was German music it's just in the background of our perception much like it's actually influencing us to buy German wine is observable just not something we notice until it's pointed out to and yes films frequently insert superluminal messages into their story like Al Robocop was the story of a beloved hero who is killed resurrected as saves everybody from death and then walks across water the director even overtly stated he wanted to make a movie about an American Jesus so remember when filmmakers show you something it's intentional alien was conceived as a rape allegory very early on in its development in The Exorcist they added the sound of buzzing bees to the background of certain spooky scenes hoping to trigger a flight or fright response in the viewer where the characters stand has a meaning what the characters hold or wear or touch has a meaning the colors in the scene have a meaning so as I take you through the evidence I have found remember that filmmakers tend to have a meaning hidden behind everything so now let's look at specific examples from the sequel trilogy and with each example ask yourself why why did they do this what is the deeper meaning here because with film there is so much more than what you see on the surface when the very first teaser trailer came out the very first thing we see is an african-american stormtrooper and the internet exploded with complaints every trooper was a clone and every clone looked the same and nothing in the trailer even briefly explained why this trooper was different Lucasfilm Disney knew this was coming they intentionally made the internet blow up they intentionally made the discussion about racism take place because if they had added it just a single line I'm a strong trooper I was taken from a family I'll never know they had added just a single line all that extra media attention would never have happened Lucasfilm Disney knew this character completely broke the mold of what we expected from a trooper and yet they specifically introduced him in a way that would upset fans why else do you think they chose this scene to be the very first thing we saw in the very first user trailer we could have seen Finn in a normal outfit and not found out he was a trooper until the movie came out if that had happened no one would have cared that he was black but by this being the very first thing we saw a fin and by not inserting any dialogue to explain why he's not a clone Lucasfilm Disney virtually guaranteed the backlash would happen and that said backlash would be perceived as racist even though most upset fans honestly didn't care if he was black they cared about the story they cared that he wasn't a clone because if Lucasfilm Disney was already ignoring previously established storyline the sequel trilogy was going to be in trouble and remember this was the very first teaser trailer that caused the racist controversy Lucasfilm Disney definitely saw all of the media talking about racist fans hating Finn so when the time came to release the first full trailer why not take this opportunity to come out and explain his origins but they didn't they intentionally let the racist conversation continue a until the film came out and by that point the damage was done Star Wars fans had been widely labeled as racist and while it's not necessarily a race issue we also can't forget the whole Russian trolled Twitter BOTS scandal surrounding the last Jedi it was widely reported and believed to be true even my not really interested in Star Wars co-workers asked me about it but quickly the evidence broke down there was no Russian conspiracy and the inevitable question is why didn't Luke his film Disney ever step in is this a second example of them sitting by and watching while the media blew a non-existent problem completely out of proportion so did Lucasfilm Disney accidentally caused the racist fan backlash or did they intentionally cause the racist fan backlash next let's look at the fact that finn was initially portrayed in the trailer as the hero the one who would be taking up the mantle of the jedi and nobody cared nobody was ranting that there couldn't be a black jedi this is further proof that the backlash against a black stormtrooper was truly not a race issue fans don't care they just want a cohesive story and that desire was twisted by the media to fit an agenda then even though he's introduced as a hero and we see him help save the day stand up to kylo on his own and become a recognized resistance hero we see finn turned into the comic relief exactly reminiscent of the stereotypical ways the early film industry treated actors of color and the thing is these films have never had more needed a comic relief character that's what the droids especially 3p over four they provided the occasional moments of comic relief Star Wars has never been the type of film that's supposed to have something funny happen in every couple of minutes and don't overlook the fact that in the most stereotypical decision of the entire film they made the black guy the janitor Finn talks multiple times about not only cleaning Starkiller base but also cleaning Stokes ship what's your job when you were based here sanitation the guy that used to mop it think about it what was the point of him talking about sweeping and mopping and knowing where trash compactors were don't just listen to me think what did his character actually gain by being labeled a janitor yes it makes logical sense that normal soldiers would do janitorial work in addition to their other duties but Finn could have had all the exact same inside knowledge of the first order without having to make janitorial references a regular trooper could easily know all of these things the profession of janitor has long been considered the meaning in America at least so why did they intentionally degrade his character instead of saying the guy who used to mop it he could have said the guy who used to be stationed there and do you think John was happy with his characterization was he calling his character a quote-unquote janitor because he's fond of the joke or as a subtle way of showing he despises the title they also intentionally made the black character have a nonsensical character arc refusing to kill one minute because a friend died in front of him then the next minute he's happily killing those exact same friends Ryan told John they were going to be making his character a big deal in the last Jedi but the only one who treats him like he's anything special is the girl who has a crush on him he's supposedly a major hero in the resistance but no other character ever acknowledges this fact and even worse hold o doesn't even know his name now are doing what and did you know in an interview leading up to the last Jedi Ryan was joking that Finn might not even wake up at all and they'd spend the entire movie cutting back and forth to his sleeping body which was mumbling funny gibberish yes I know Ryan was just making a joke but look at the subtext this is a joke saying that the only black man in the movie is so unimportant that he could be taken out and not missed at all Finn is constantly degraded throughout the entire film he's called names by rows when he was just trying to save his friend he's the idiot who needs help flying he's too enthralled by the grandeur of the casino and would have lost himself without Rose there to keep him on track he's stopped from making a noble sacrifice and told he's an idiot they even wrote a scene where the black man needs an explanation of why slavery is bad ignoring the fact that his character is the one who's literally been a kidnapped soldiers slave to the first order his entire life the two movies that we have seen so far have not treated african-american actors with respect and looking at the extended canto bite scene where we see the biggest sampling of characters in the entire trilogy so far look at how completely whitewashed it is and as further support of my analysis of how poorly minorities are treated here's an article detailing ratios stereotypes in Hollywood that exactly fit our Star Wars characters Latino characters are defined by their sex appeal and hotheadedness Asian characters are almost always technically savvy British characters tend to be the villain african-americans tend to get cast as criminals or the comedic best friend John boyega is awesome he's a great actor and he did very well with the material he was given I honestly loved how he pulled off his comedic role in these films but when we look closer at the character what message was Lucasfilm Disney trying to show by pushing out fake racist backlash intentionally portraying the black character as the hero turning him into the comic relief and labeling him as the janitor phasma was written to be a complete joke outwardly she's portrayed as a strong woman capable leader and intimidating fighter but in reality she caves immediately to the slightest threat dooming everyone under her command because she didn't have the backbone to refuse to comply she was the very first female stormtrooper and was immediately made a complete laughingstock then she shows up again out of nowhere with no explanation when the last time we saw her she had been thrown down a trash compactor on an exploding planet they brought back a character from the dead with no explanation had her throw away her gun and fight with a stick with no explanation and then lose the fight in an idiotic way to the janitor with PTSD there is nothing respectful about how they treated the first female stormtrooper who was supposed to be feared look closer at her scenes she's not the focus of the scene here the man is she's not in charge here the man is she's not in charge here the men are in nearly every scene she is in she's either being subservient to a man or being dominated by one and the one moment of Awesomeness she had was relegated to a deleted scene they changed the clip of the woman standing triumphantly over the man to be the man standing triumphantly over the woman and look at how much they paraded miss Kristi around making such a big deal about her character touting their progressiveness she was built up to be a way more important character a way more competent character than she ended up playing and then in a very recurring theme the woman is given credit for something she did not earn well done phasma phasma had absolutely nothing to do with their capture it's obviously their bb-8 droid that noticed the intruders yet they credit phasma to try to give her weak character more importance Gwendoline Christie is awesome she played one of the most beloved female warriors of our era so her being a complete joke in Star Wars was that an accident or on purpose now this Leia this Leia was awesome she took control and led with competence but sequel trilogy Leia take a closer look beneath the surface of the strong female leader they pretended she was first off at the beginning of the last Jedi Leia stopped helping with the frantic evacuation to change from this blue dress into this other outfit in addition to completely changing her hair you couldn't write something more insultingly stereotypical this feels like a parody she stops in the middle of an evacuation to change clothes and redo her hair and then the first thing she says to her brother after 15 years is did you notice I changed my hair this line seems cute and playful at first but look closer it makes no sense this is the third hairstyle we've seen her wear in just a couple days she changes her hair so often that having her point out hey I changed my hair did you notice makes her sound like a teenage girl vying for attention now if you'd like to argue that she's making an inside joke the line should have been I know what you're going to say surprise surprise she changed her hair again now that would have made total sense it would have landed the joke perfectly lightened the mood been a great call back to past films but she wasn't making an inside joke the line obviously was meant to be taken at face value it's nice that way so did Ryan purposefully show her changing clothes and hairstyles to depict a stereotypical vain woman obsessed with her looks or did he accidentally portray her as a stereotypical vain woman obsessed with her looks actually they gave Leia many other idiotic liens that make no sense they've trapped us through Lightspeed that's impossible they've done it this line was guaranteed to be ridiculed I mean she's literally the character who introduced the idea of tracking a ship through Lightspeed and now suddenly she's saying it's impossible now yes I know there's this whole argument of passive versus active tracking but she immediately assumes the first order has a new impossible technology instead of assuming they planted a tracking device on their ship no matter how you try to defend this scene the fact is that as the scene was directed Leia looks like an idiot she didn't order them to search for a tracker never even consider the fact that she was literally wearing a tracking beacon and if the first order had captured ray they would instantly be able to track down the resistance in fact if not for a sheer dumb luck of the bracelet falling off Leah's wrist and then taking it off the Radice that's exactly what would have happened ray turned herself into the first order they now have her beacon if Leia hadn't accidentally lost hers all those plan wouldn't even have started to work the first order would have seen the beacon leaving the Radice so now Leia looks like a bigger idiot because she almost got everyone killed by giving a complete stranger a tracking device and then not realizing when they were getting tracked that the enemy may now have a said tracking device on the surface they made her appear to be a competent general capable of leading and deserving of respect but then under the surface they made sure that she was a failure they portrayed her as the stereotypical weak mother making excuses for her child instead of insisting he take responsibility for his own actions she then told Han that he needed to face Ben that he could save his son where Luke couldn't Leia's stubborn refusal to accept that her baby boy was too evil to save got her husband killed you're his father there's still light in him I know it bring him home then they gave her the Mary Poppins scene a scene that came 1,000 percent out of left field and was absolutely guaranteed to upset fans it was so nonsensical even the characters in the story ignored that it ever happened nobody says hey Leia you came back from the dead and flew through outer space could you help us get away from the Radice could you stop that army from killing us could you move these rocks nothing in the sequel trilogy thus far had indicated she was even still connected to the force and nothing after this moment indicates that she's connected to the force even though the original trilogy clearly indicated she was destined to become a Jedi like her brother you have that power too anytime you learn to use a design this scene was nothing but damaging to her character it comes out of nowhere and with no explanation gives the woman power she didn't earn then they gave her the line it was my personal code building up the fact that she's important enough to have a galaxy-wide reputation building up the fact that she is beloved and once people hear that she needs help they'll come running in to fight for her and what is the subtext our distress signals been received at multiple points but no response they've heard us but no one's coming literally nobody in the entire galaxy thinks she's important enough to fight for not a single one of their allies cared if she died because she is a weak leader and a weak a woman who twice in the same film needed a man to come save her that is the subtext of this scene and it is a deplorable use of a character that originally represented such strength then they have the scene of Leia physically slapping PO which is something an actual military commander would never do but this is something that a weak unstable woman ruled by her emotions would do Leia slapping him in Italy degrades her character and when you analyze the scene further she's not only made to look emotionally volatile but also like a short-sighted idiot if po hadn't disobeyed her and destroyed the dread-nots the entire resistance would have been destroyed within minutes of the start of the chase po was right they had to destroy the dread-nots it literally would have killed their entire fleet and Leia not seeing that lay of physically punishing him for being a right what is the underlying message the underlying message is that the man was right all along and the woman overreacted instead of listening to him and what about the scene of Leia shooting Po what does this scene show po gives up he lowers his gun po is not going to fight against Thalia she tells him to drop the gun and give himself up and Trust hold oh he would have done it but again we have the weak female being ruled by her emotions and she angrily shoots him for no reason and lastly we have her final line this line of dialogue is laughable they have absolutely nothing there are like a dozen resistance fighters left alive all the rest of their friends just died within the past few hours nobody in the entire galaxy cares about them Luke is dead rays only weapon is destroyed and she obviously doesn't know how to fix it they have no weapons no ships no base no allies if you were to intentionally give Leia the stupidest line possible she would say she is one of three characters that personified at the original trilogy and in the last Jedi she has been relegated to a supporting character she constantly takes a backseat to Poe he has all of the lines he gives all the commands he's even centered in the screen with her back behind him Leia was publicly portrayed as a strong female character inspiring and Noble but under the surface in almost every scene she is in you can easily pick out extremely anti-feminist undertones and considering how outspoken and strong Kerry was this demeaning depiction is just a plural we all loved her we're all going to miss her Carrie Fisher was fearless and outspoken and guys loved that about her but something is very wrong with how general Leia was portrayed [Music] Maz was also made into a joke refusing to give any actual useful information in the first film a good question for another time and blatantly refusing to help them at all in the next film I mean the excuse she gives as a union dispute meaning her employees were asking for a raise and she literally started a war instead of trying to listen to their requests that's bad enough but then add on the confusing fact that her entire business was destroyed literally the day before this phone call she also introduced the brand-new concept that objects can now be sentient it calls to you which mutti is the entire plot because now we don't know if the lightsaber was possessed just like Lucasfilm Disney had this helmet be possessed and they labeled these films as progressive yet addend subtle scenes depicting promiscuous women fawning over rich white men and why do I say promiscuous because just a day before either jokingly or for all we know possibly seriously she called chewy her boyfriend we've only had three scenes with her and in two of those three scenes she talks about romantic relationships with men does that really sound like a progressive female character additionally she stoic Lee says they all need to band together to fight the first order all of us yet when the fighting actually starts she runs away and we never see her again there was even going to be a scene of her actually fighting with them but it was cut making her character look like a coward on the surface Maz is a wise quirky yota type character that I actually really enjoyed but once you look deeper what do you actually see she is a pointless character whose only actual utility in the story is giving something important to a man kelly marie tran gets a lot of undeserved hate for this role in my opinion it's a role she played beautifully Rose brought a level of bubbling joyful optimism to the film that it desperately needed they also had several scenes where they did good work showing female empowerment showing she's competent by how swiftly she works the controls or when Rose wakes up first and starts trying to drag Finn to safety however let's look closer at the subtext of the rest of her scenes almost everytime they traveled together the man is flying the ship even though the entire point of Finn rescueing poem was that he couldn't fly roses the mechanic why is the guy who doesn't know how to fly in charge unless they're subtly showing that even a weak man is better than a strong woman Rose talks about how terrible everyone at the casino is only a few scenes later to find out that those people supplied the resistance with their ships which means Rose wind from having a memorable line with actual deep meaning to now she can't hate them because they're what's allowing the resistance to fight back in the first place then look at her line saving what we love which is possibly the most hated line in the entire film this line only sounds deep and inspirational the first time you hear it with any intelligent thought the dialogue quickly breaks down so why was she given this line why was she the one to stop Finn from sacrificing himself nearly everyone I've talked with agrees that Finn actually dying here to save the resistance wouldn't have been the perfect end to his character earth so why did the filmmakers have her stop him and deliver a borderline idiotic piece of dialogue that was almost guaranteed to be criticized next example in the book it's revealed that Rose was the one who designed the special experimental engine that Poe used to get close to the dread-nots and that she's the one who designed the engines stealth systems that almost let the shuttles sneak past the first order so her character was written to be far more important then she was actually shown to be on film so why would they cut out part of her storyline that would have made her more useful and more importantly did they trick Kelly into accepting the role by showing her a script where Rose had those scenes still included next we can look at how ROS stuns Finn without letting him explain his situation this makes her look weak and emotionally volatile because she just said he is a respected hero and then immediately changes her mind without even waiting to hear his explanation Rose is even called vermin and then actually acts like an animal biting her male superior Kelly Tran did an amazing job with the character she was given but something is wrong with how ROS is portrayed as a quick comparison look at these other two female characters have you ever heard anyone complain about them she doesn't have any stupid lines she doesn't do stupid things that the audience is likely to criticize so why not is the Asian actor being degraded in the same fashion that the black actor was which brings us to Poe because at first glance he tends to get labeled as a white man but he's actually also a Hollywood minority Oscar Isaac Hernandez Estrada born in Guatemala the Asian character was treated poorly the african-american character was treated poorly and the Latino character he is both physically and verbally abused throughout the entire film po was never once accused of nor shown to be hot-headed in the force awakens so why in the next film did this hot-headed Latino stereotype suddenly get pushed on us Oh in the first film he cares about his fellow pilots telling them to get out of there while he does the most dangerous work all by himself in the second film he happily sacrifices his fellow pilots without a second thought everyone I've talked to loves this character he's charismatic and determined and kind but the last Jedi treated him like a stereotypical hot-headed Latino who never learns his lesson about giving up Authority Admiral holo is one of the most confusing characters we've ever seen in Star Wars battle of Chiron Belt Admiral Holden she's a brilliant military commander but not really she's spiteful and hates PO but not really they built her up to be a mastermind battle commander and then her brilliant plan was to insult her subordinates until not just PO but most of the crew didn't believe in her ability to lead the first mutiny we've ever seen in Star Wars was caused because she was such a poor leader our real-life military has 11 principles of leadership and keep your people informed is number two hold O intentionally did not do the second most important thing that is vital to a military unit she was intentionally written to be a poor leader and not only was she written to be a poor leader she was written to reinforce a negative stereotype about women that they've refused to directly answer questions and tend to make a men gasp what the women are thinking and even when we see her brilliant escape plan its evacuate in the escape shuttles and hope the enemy doesn't notice she had no way of knowing that the first order wasn't already scanning for escape craft in fact scanning for escape pods has already been shown to be standard practice there's another one hold your fire there's no life she also had no way of knowing that the first order didn't have windows they could see out of because this entire plan doesn't work if the enemy is looking and Snoke was easily able to see the shuttles with his huge magnifying glass thing she wasn't fooling anyone in the first place [Music] [Music] in fact her plan was so bad nearly everyone I've spoken with agrees when they first saw the film they were convinced that she was a double agent for the first order actually I stumbled across this hilariously sad story where this woman's young daughter legitimately believed that whole dough was a bad guy and guess what else whole dough doesn't actually get credit for the whole dough maneuver a man does according to the novel she was only able to actually do the Lightspeed ramming because Poe had already programmed in the hyperspace coordinates yes her sacrifice was extremely brave but she lucked into being able to do this it wasn't something she earned on her own merit everything about whole dough from her dress to her hair was very likely to be criticized look at Leia as a comparison she is only wearing her white dress at appropriate times when she knows she's going into battle she's dressed for the part especially when commanding others it's important she looks official Leia and Mon Mothma both looked regal hold Oh looked like she was going to a ball by comparison mon mothma x' dress looked very similar to Leia's original dress keeping a continuous theme of royal bearing and Mon Mothma also speaks and moves in extremely regal manner making her manner of dress appear completely natural while hold o is snarky and acts exactly like the mean teenager that she is dressed like furthering the comparison and the first time we are introduced to grown-up at general Leia she's not wearing stately robes she's wearing a military outfit so she looks the part they knew how to introduce a military leader who was dressed in a manner that commands respect so what was their reason for dressing a whole dough in a manner that doesn't command respect take a look at how Ryan wanted to hold those costume to be designed at how he describes her character Ryan designed her to look soft and feminine and to flirt with Poe what part of that sounds empowering next analyzed the speech itself she gives no helpful information she looks stiff and nervous she does not command respect and did you realize how many women are on the command deck once whole dough is in charge compared to when Leia was in charge hold oh it's constantly surrounded by women and the camera cuts from woman to woman never having a man except Poe with any dialogue did Leia hate women and hold Oh didn't did all of the competent men die so they were left with only women what is the underlying message here compare her to Leia and you'll see exactly the opposite a competent female leader who gives helpful information in a succinct manner she looks each officer in the eye and addresses questions directly and without condescension Leia is the essence of what a good military leader should be hold oh is the opposite now ask yourself why post and did you know when Ryan sat down to pitch laura dern the character and ask her to be in the film he talked for 10 minutes before she figured out he was describing a Star Wars movie which is more likely that he's that incompetent of a filmmaker or for some reason he tried to purposefully mislead her about the film and worst of all the filmmakers tricked Laura Dern showing her one script and then after she signed the contract they changed her dialogue in reshoots and ADR watched the behind the scenes footage Ryan describes her character as being very Spacey reminding me of Luna Lovegood she was also supposed to be antagonistic and angry towards Poe because all of the Bombers had been her squadron and her friends and Poe was responsible for their deaths but none of that character development actually made it into the film just her weird hate flirting now maybe that decision to change her character was justified maybe it actually worked better for the story but that wasn't what Laura agreed to that wasn't the character signed on to play and it wasn't fair to the actress to make a major changes to her character after she's locked into a contract next consider the audience is primed to absolutely love Poe he saved everyone on takodana almost single-handedly he destroyed Starkiller base almost single-handedly he takes on the dread-nots completely single-handedly and wins all of them he's charismatic and steadfast and the audience loves him and the second she starts degrading him we are now primed to hate her for picking on a character that we like they could have had her talk condescendingly to any other male subordinate and the audience wouldn't have cared they wrote whole dough in a manner guaranteed to cause her to be disliked and finally we see whole dough degrading Poe for 99% of their interactions and then at the end she suddenly changes her mind and says she likes him yet another example of how emotionally unstable a stereotypical woman is so was whole dough intentionally or accidentally written as such a poorly developed character that we honestly couldn't tell if she was trying to help or hurt the resistance was she purposefully or accidentally showed one script then forced to play a different character was it on purpose or an accident that the book gives Poe credit for the whole dough maneuver was it an accident or on purpose that the handsome leading man literally begs her to give him hope fully submitting himself to her authority and yet she ignores his question instead answering with a meaningless catchphrase Laura Dern is awesome I absolutely loved her character in Jurassic Park her dialogue her wardrobe her actions are all amazingly well crafted this is a good female character and this is not ray from nowhere I hardly know where to begin analyzing this character and how terribly she is treated ray is the beautiful single strong-willed woman but look closer at how they treat her she is constantly held down by men against her will three times there is very obvious rape symbolism first when the two men attacker while a large group of men stands by watching the show next by kylo and then by snow [Music] I really can't believe this isn't talked about more they're not just doing what they want to with her body they're forcing their way inside her mind the most private part of her has now been violated twice by two different men and what does she do she falls for the first guy who mind raped her and then ends up needing said mind rapist to rescue her from the second rapist because she wasn't strong enough to defend herself and did you notice that the turning point when Ray went from despising Kyllo to having feelings for him was her seeing him without a shirt on was it on purpose or an accident that they made the woman begin falling for the man who abused her after she realized how handsome he was there is no equivalent scene at no time does kylo ever act nervous around her do you have something a cowl or something you can put on they could have easily flipped this scene had the man be embarrassed about being seen shirtless by the beautiful woman giving her the power but no she had to be embarrassed for the man to keep the power ray the first female Jedi that's a lead character is also the most inexplicably overpowered character in all of Star Wars despite the fact that she appears to be a recluse and rarely talks to anyone she somehow knows more languages than anyone we've ever seen she automatically knows all about technology she has never seen before the first time Finn shoots the Falcons guns he has tons of trouble figuring it out her first time ray kills three Thai fighters with one shot she automatically knows how to swim without having ever seen water after only hours of even learning the force exists she mind-controlled a stormtrooper twice overpowered a force user with decades more experience defeats multiple elite guards trained to fight Jedi and lifted more than every master combined without even concentrating or breaking a sweat it took the chosen one a being created by the force nearly twenty years to get as strong as Rey got in mere days they intentionally wrote the first a lead female Jedi to have a skill growth curve that was guaranteed to be criticized by comparison Luke's skills were far more realistic of a character arc after one lesson and a few days of feeling connected with the force he manages to block two blaster bolts and land a single shot without computer assistance and that's it after several more years of practice if he concentrates really hard he can now levitate small objects and as long as the more experienced fighter doesn't really try Luke can hold his own in a fight and look even deeper at comparing Luke and Rey the differences are astonishing Luke always needs help Rey never does Luke is saved by obi-wan twice saved by Leia in the detention block saved by r2 with a trash compactor saved by Han from Vader's saved by Han from freezing to death he's tested and rejected by Yoda loses an arm needs to be rescued again falls into traps needs close teamwork with his friends to rescue han needs close teamwork with his friends to attack the Death Star he needs to be rescued by his father ray on the other hand beats up thieves by herself easily flies by herself a ship normally requiring two pilots comes up with a plan to save them by herself saves Han from the pirates saves Finn from the rafters bypassed the compressor on the Falcon which his owner never thought of resists being interrogated and escapes on her own beats a far more experienced opponent in battle the first time she's ever held a lightsaber gets hugged by princess general Leia even though they've never met is entrusted to retrieve Luke instead of his own sister going she trains herself to fight when Luke won't every time he tries to teach her something she's the one that ends up teaching him a lesson only the second time she fights with the lightsaber she ends up the victor versus Grand Master Luke Skywalker the entire reason Yodas force ghost finally showed up was for him to convince Luke that Rey was worth believing in Yoda the same character who tried to convince Luke to sacrifice his friends so that he could complete his training is now saying Rey is so special that she doesn't need training like Luke did then Rey somehow convinces kylo to betray his master that he threw his entire life away for Rey then saves Ben from being killed saves the resistance from the TIE fighters somehow knows the foxes are connected to her friends and then saves the resistance from the cave-in Rey is more powerful more perfect more likeable of a character and than anything we have ever seen the only negative things we ever see happen to her in these films are the times that she is forced against her will by men she is forced to do what unkar plutt wants forced to do it kylo wants forced to do what Snoke wants forced to do with Luke once but beyond that she never struggles and never fails when you compared her perfect character arc to Luke's very flawed one it becomes very obvious Rey was created to be criticized again ask yourself why because when upset fans pointed out that she's a poorly written character it's an easy step for the powers that be to then paint those fans as sexist and further their agenda Disney intentionally made the sexism conversation take place by writing Rey to be overpowered racist backlash check sexist backlash Rey is celebrated as an empowered female character but look closer she's written to be 100% dependent upon men without kylo Rey wouldn't even be for sensitive Snoke flat-out says the force is only rising in Rey because it is so strong in kylo and rey only learns to use the force because she downloaded all of kylos training accidentally this is one of the things that gets the most backlash the fact that Rey was instantly so powerful more so than any Jedi we've ever seen even the chosen one and the official explanation is that she stole kylo straining let that sink in the first female Jedi the film's focus on was intentionally written so that she didn't earn her skills with blood and sweat over years of practice kylo trained for well over a decade to gain his power Rey learned to use that power in a day this unprecedented learning curve hurts the character badly and rise of Skywalker is going to do even worse as she reads the Jedi texts and her power is likely to grow even further all in the span of days or weeks she is written to only have her power because of a man she is written to only know how to use that power because a man did all of the learning for her they intentionally wrote the female to be completely dependent upon the male then if we look at Rey's emotions they perfectly reflect the exact opposite of a strong female role model she forms a bond with a man who murdered her father figure right in front of her the man who killed all of his classmates and helped murder millions of others she sided with the man who literally keeps the ashes of all of the people he's killed in his bed the evil man slowly seduced the weak woman and she fell for it getting more upset with Luke for briefly considering killing someone then she got at kylo for actually killing someone why did you kill him she also completely ignores the fact that as far as she knows kylo either crippled or killed her best friend she's portrayed as emotionally unstable falling for Finn in one movie and then nearly forgetting about him in the next then again we see instability as she makes a mental switch from knowing who her parents are and just not knowing where they are for my family they'll be back one day to suddenly not even knowing who they are our surrogate parents are this decision by Rian to change her backstory made her character far weaker and reinforces the stereotype that women changed their minds all the time and don't really know what they want and then we again see her emotional instability later with Luke she physically attacks him even though she has zero proof what kylo said is true and then a fourth time we see her emotional instability as she goes from absolutely hating kylo but her snake to developing feelings for him at least four different times Rey is depicted as a stereotypical emotionally unstable woman ruled by her emotions not making logical decisions and what about this scene seems harmless at first doesn't it but look closer at the dialogue I think I can handle myself the dialogue is actually subtly dissing Rey when she says I think I can handle myself Han says I know you do he's not saying I know you can handle yourself he's saying you better take this gun because you think you can handle yourself but I have my doubts now granted this example of misogyny is so innocuous I wouldn't have given it a second thought on its own but now it's just another in a very long list and I can't help wondering was it an accident or on purpose that Han appeared to be complimenting her but was actually dissing her and did you notice Rey was never actually given a choice about her journey obi-wan asked Luke directly if he wanted to go with him Rey time and time and time again told everyone that she wanted to go back to jakku and every single man ignored her in my last video I analyzed Luke's nonsensical dialogue and how it either didn't have a competent writer or clearly showed that Luke was mentally insane similarly Rey's dialogue as frequently just as idiotic she shouldn't know what the dark side is she has no idea whether kylo is getting stronger or even what that phrase means she doesn't know who Vader was he died what 20-30 years before she was even born she thought Luke Skywalker was a myth every single thing related to the Jedi should be brand new information for her her character constantly knows things that she should never have known raise dialogue was written to be criticized I covered in a previous video how the filmmakers made the decision to re-edit the throne-room battle digitally removing a sword so that rain never gets badly wounded a decision that helped further foster the argument that she's too powerful and too unrealistic every other man suffers either a physical or emotional loss when they fight a sith luke has his hand cut off Anakin has a hand cut off Obi gets his arm and his leg cut loses his master mace gets a hand cut off and lightning out a window the fact that the woman does not suffer physically like the men do shows that the filmmakers were intentionally treating her differently and while we're on the scene we have to acknowledge how badly this scene makes female stunt people look analyze this fight scene and Rey is utterly incompetent as a fighter magically kicking three people at once magically knocking back people for no reason magically blocking three swords at once the poor stuntman in the scene were doing everything they could to make the scene work but it was too poorly choreographed and Daisy was so poorly trained this entire scene makes her character even more of a laughingstock once you look below the surface next let's look at the fact that Rey doesn't deserve her own stuff she doesn't get her own lightsaber she doesn't get her own ship they are repurposing things that once belonged to a man from the source of her powers to her training to her weapons to her ship everything Rey has was given to her by a man she earned nothing on her own we can also look at her costume change and how she wears her hair down making her appear more soft and feminine so kylo will be more attracted to her or consider how the camera constantly pans slowly up her body as if the audience themselves is leering at her was it intentional that four different times they associated the beautiful young woman being in the rain or covered by water when you consider how wet women in modern cinema tend to be sex symbols the decision to associate her with water for different times should definitely be questioned all of the women of Star Wars have been over sexualized some far more than others granted with Ray it's far more subtle she never shows as much skin as the other ladies do but I really expected ray to finally break the mold of trying to draw male fans interest based solely on her looks and look at the majority of her dialogue she's always either talking about kylo Ren or Luke not her own needs or emotions granted Leia and Padme probably fall into that trap as well but they weren't being heralded as progressive female characters so we need to look closer at Rey in that regard and did you notice how they intentionally put her in the position of supplication on her knees in front of a man which is exactly the opposite of how the scene should have happened she was furious with kylo for murdering Han Snoke should have stoked that hatred tempting her to the dark side she should have been standing over kylo she should have been in the position of power but instead of Rey being powerful we have her shown to be weak no matter how hard she fights she can't do anything on her own without a man there to save her in fact the beautiful heroine is shown time after time after time to be in a position of supplication Sleeping Beauty waiting peacefully for her prince to rescue her going wherever the men lead her she only left jakku because of Finn only went to takodana because Han took her there only went to the basement because the lightsaber called her only went to Starkiller because kylo took her there only escaped Starkiller because she rescued her only went to octo is a plot device to reintroduce luke only went to the tree because the force called her only went to Snoke ship for kylo only went to crate for finn ask yourself does Rey ever go anywhere of her own free will almost all of her dialogue is about Luke or fin or kylo the Bechdel test is a measure of a woman's representation in fiction and in both films so far Rey has utterly failed that test next please consider that Rey is constantly begging kylo for information for understanding for open communication except the couple minutes when she beats him on Starkiller his character has all of the power in every single confrontation they have he controls the dialogue he controls her actions he controls everything additionally let's consider the blatant double standard when it comes to the emotional state of our main hero the only other time we've seen crying in Star Wars was with Anakin when he turned to the dark side which was duplicated very well with kylo but when you look at how often ray cries you'll see that she is treated very very differently than the male heroes ray cries all the time she is constantly intentionally depicted as the weepy emotional weak woman now I actually liked this about Daisy as someone who has been involved in filmmaking I really appreciated that she was able to delve deeply enough into her character to be able to cry on cue like this Daisy did a fantastic job with what she was given but what she was given was a very misogynistic view of how tough women would actually react in a difficult situation and look at the scene where they touch hands and compare their reactions the man is stoic and composed the woman is an emotional mess breathing heavily for no reason and don't overlook the very obvious symbolism of this scene happening in his bedroom don't overlook the obvious parallel of the angry dad interrupting the teenagers before things go too far [Music] and finally to wrap up our analysis of Ray take a look at this quote from Natalie Portman herself the fallacy in Hollywood is that if you are making a feminist story the woman kicks ass and wins that's not feminist that's macho a movie about a week vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with and therein lies the problem we can't identify with Ray ask yourself what does ray actually want she wants her family then doesn't want her family wants to be on jakku then doesn't care about jakku wants to be with luke then doesn't want to be with Luke wants to be with kylo and then doesn't want to be with kylo we don't know what ray actually wants because she wasn't written to be a real person that we can empathize with just having a woman as a lead character isn't enough to celebrate equality you have to look deeper at the subtlety of how her character is portrayed Daisy Ridley is awesome I loved watching her interviews she's intelligent and witty and charming and kind but something is wrong with how Ray is portrayed she is not the strong female role model that Lucasfilm Disney wants you to believe that she is I am writing the script in September the final film in the sequel trilogy will come out in three months I'm very curious how the rise of Skywalker will treat the female cast members because from what we've seen so far look at this shot why did the filmmakers do this this shot should have had two people the focus is on Poe and hold oh but instead it's packed full of women who completely boxed the man in this shot feels almost claustrophobic what exactly where the filmmakers trying to symbolize here the women were being used as symbols for something although I'm not sure if it was the voice of reason or the opposite because first hole dough is surrounded almost exclusively by women then later she's surrounded by almost exclusively men while the women have switched to pose side then when the guns are drawn the sexes seem to draw up sides with the three women centred versus the three men centred now I'm not saying this type of symbolism is necessarily bad but this feels much more like moving women around like props instead of proper characterization we can also look at the cinematography at the actual positioning of the camera and the actors in each scene and guess what even here we see subtle signs of misogyny the man walks in front the man walks in front and walks in front walks in front the man Bronx in front walks in front unless she's delivering a line of dialogue in almost every other shot the man is in the foreground and the woman is in the background from this fight we're not done yet your monster and watch this scene after the video feed cuts off the camera cuts to Finn and Poe Rose is utterly blocked from the shot then a close-up of Poe then another close-up of Finn isn't Rose part of this why does the camera ignore her interesting how they wanted to show her making lovey dovey eyes at Finn but also didn't want to make her the focus of a single shot in this entire sequence and again later the man is featured in the foreground and the woman is in the background not even facing the camera why is this constantly happening why is rose almost never shown to be in the foreground and Ray is the main character why are secondary characters constantly being put in front of her [Music] next look at this scene not only does the man blatantly interrupt the woman mid-sentence but he also completely blocks her from the camera like she's not even important enough to be seen sneak on board the lead destroyer and disable the tracker without them realizing and remember the actors move where the director tells them to and they say what he tells them to say I am NOT saying that John boyega is part of this misogynist conspiracy he was saying and doing exactly what Ryan directed him to do so what in the world was gained by cutting rows off mid-sentence and simultaneously blocking her from view giving the audience the subconscious message that she is neither worth being seen nor listened to and this happens again later with Leia she's utterly blocked from view until it's her turn to say a quick line then it's back to the men next let's take a look at how the characters were spaced out in the scene look who's centered in the frame look who's controlling the dialogue the women are all on the outside of the circle and in the background of every shot while the men are on the inside of the circle and centered in every shot and when the focus of the circle moves so do the men Finn and Poe are at the head of the group facing out of the mine then they move so they're still at the head of the group facing into the mine in fact it's a very common theme in group shots for the woman to be relegated to the outer parts while the men control the conversation from the center of the circle Leia is their general Leia is in charge Leia is used to giving commands in battle why is Leia being submissive here even though she is strong-willed and I actually love what they did with her character arc we still have to look at what Lucasfilm Disney willingly did to Keira they purposefully decided to have her get out of the ghetto by being bought by a rich white man and made his sex slave it's a huge plot point that he literally owns her and you could see how terrified she is of him now like I said I've really liked this character arc in this film how she did what she had to do in order to survive and eventually learned enough and grew strong enough to kill her abuser but if we look at this character in context with the rest of the sequel trilogy Lucasfilm Disney chose to make her an abuse sex slave who tricked the man that she claimed to love and then abandoned him I along with many others absolutely loved Emilia Clarke she's one of the most charming witty gracious people I have ever seen but when her character is analyzed alongside all of the other evidence I've presented Kira is another glaring example of blatant anti-feminist messaging that's hidden in plain sight next let's look at how many examples there are of women physically beating men down now obviously I'm not saying that women shouldn't be awesome and win fights for instance this fight scene is perfectly in character and sends a great message about female empowerment but what does this scene show what's the super liminal message here why is it that the only times we see anyone gets stunned it's a woman stunning a man especially since half of these examples exactly fit the stereotype of women letting their emotions dictate their actions additionally the film's entire subplot concerning Poe was about teaching him to accept orders from his female superiors instead of being hot-headed and taking action himself and what's he doing now literally the exact same thing taking charge and completely ignoring his female superior [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we don't even get a close-up of Leia until the very end not only did Poe ignore her Ryan ignored her too for this entire scene until he needed to show her being subservient instead of pointing out how Poe had just learned a lesson about not taking charge Leia seemed to think the lesson he learned was how to be a good leader if people like this scene it's because it taught him to respect his female commander but Ryan directed the film in a way that elevated Poe back to his superior male status where he didn't need input from the women or look at the scene that was very nearly included in the film where Ray is unable to land a shot so the man had to do it for her we also have the incredibly stereotypical concept of the strong man giving the weak woman his jacket because she is cold yes she's from a desert planet yes she would have been cold yes Finn had a jacket all of it makes sense but if you're labeling her as a progressive character would she not have been strong and refused his jacket when he offered it we can also look at the extremely odd fact that Ray and kylos personalities are swapped during the final fight scene he is the Sith fueled by rage she is the amateur never fighting opponents like this before never seeing weapons like this before but look at their faces during this fight and you can see their roles are reversed he looks terrified like this is his very first fight and he's not really sure what's happening while she is constantly yelling in anger at her opponent and jumping aggressively into each battle this wasn't an accident Daisy and Adam didn't randomly decide what emotions they wanted to convey the director did so what reason could there be for this swap of emotions that made her appear aggressive and him appear weak and what is the deeper message by showing that she's the only Jedi who was able to channel her anger in battle without losing herself to the dark side next let's look at how the depiction of women sacrificing themselves for the greater good is noble but the man sacrificing himself for the greater good isn't noble is this actually showing the power of women or is it showing that women are expendable and men aren't that Asian woman died I will get another one that female commander died I will just cut to Leia as long as as a woman on screen will get credit for being progressive but I guess we can't let the black men die cuz we don't have another one of those yet the women are also given softer curse words than the men snake also consider the fact that no women are shown to be in physical pain but the men are well the women are all ethereal perfect even getting blasted into space has Leia looking flawless Rosa is so hurt that she passes out from the pain yet she's smiling and perfectly serene and comfortable Rey even gets knocked into a tree so hard that we hear breaking branches and then she falls fifteen feet to land on the ground and she isn't a bit hurt by it layin not only survived being in space but was also totally unscathed none of the debris bruised or cut or hurt her at all even in her fight scenes Rey is never physically hurt whatsoever none of the women experienced pain like the men do Y by itself it means nothing but in light of all of the other evidence I've presented consider the symbolism of the old white man having his own group of female servants to do his cleaning for him and beyond that consider the fact that they are dressed like nuns and films currently tend to betray most nuns as young beautiful innocent and frequently as sexual conquests the decision to dress them as nuns confuse me since day one could there have been an underlying message next consider the framing of this shot in many films a man circling an unaware woman like this is an extremely predatory motion what was the meaning they wanted to convey by framing the shot like this and another thing I never thought twice about and what was the obsession with jewelry as far as star wars goes there are an absolutely unprecedented number of people and note they're mostly women who are wearing rings and necklaces and showing close-up shots focusing on those rings or necklaces in fact I found at least 13 different close-ups where the ring or necklace was the entire focus of the shot and I got tired of trying to count how many times the necklaces or rings were intentionally facing the camera so that they were obvious but go through the movie and pay attention and count for yourself so what's the deeper meaning here was this a marketing ploy to try to sell us merch because another obvious conclusion is that pretty jewelry is very frequently a negative stereotype associated with rapid image-obsessed women next I acknowledge eyes that this is very subjective and not everyone hates the same lines of dialogue but I scrolled multiple forums searching for everyone's most hated lines and then I compared how many of the most hated lines were said by men versus women and by a far margin the lines said by women tended to be the ones most often talked about negatively no matter which form I looked through so did Lucasfilm Disney intentionally or accidentally give women dialog they knew was subpar and was likely to be negatively received and did you realize that seven out of the twelve deleted scenes from the force awakens centered on women or minorities and 13 out of the 14 deleted scenes from the last Jedi centered on women or minorities only one cutscene was a white male did you realise how often the women are sacrificed just so the men could have an emotional moment of character development did you realize that when Ryan decided to have Rose fall in love with Finn the next movie would have an inevitable love triangle where the two women would be fighting for the man's affection many of you are aware of how spitefully Lucasfilm Disney employees treated upset fans let's ignore the fact that that's just bad business practice to insult your fanbase did the employees intentionally berate and belittle the fans feeling it not only our anger but the public perception of fans being racist and misogynist does Lucasfilm Disney itself treat women poorly in the real world paying them less than men for the same job and denying promotions what if characters were written a certain way to evoke what would be perceived as racist sexist responses what if the Asian dressed in actual military garb had been the commander and the spunky brave purple haired lady had been the mechanic both characters are instantly less likely to face criticism from fans because it's far more likely for a lower ranked soldier to want to color her hair to stand out and it's far more likely for a high ranking battle hero to actually look the part now I've mentioned the media already and the negative role they played in the black stormtrooper backlash but the media also played a huge role in labeling Star Wars fans as sexist yes there are undoubtedly sexist Star Wars fans out there who don't want to see a female lead but as a general rule I'd say that most men are more attracted to a strong woman over a weak one you can even see evidence of this when you look at the actual sexist quotes that people get so worked up over just look at how few of them there actually are there's always going to be a very small percentage of both men and women that simply despise the opposite sex and know we shouldn't give those hateful people the time of day so this raises a very interesting point if we combine every racist sexist tweet ever sent how many do you think there are and how big would you say the Star Wars fan base is maybe about a million very hardcore fans who live and breathe star wars and let's say worldwide there's what maybe 5 million 10 million people who would call themselves Star Wars fans so here's the big question when the trailer for seven came out why was there so much media attention on the racism when rogue one came out why was there so much media attention on the sexism when episode 8 came out why did the misogynist argument start flying through the media again why are they writing articles about hateful fans when they make up only like point zero zero one percent of the fan base did the media intentionally paint all Star Wars fans as racist misogynist man babies or were they just trying to make money and negativity sells better now you may be saying even if all this evidence isn't just circumstantial there's no way it would actually influence people in real life well look closer it already is there's a fairly significant number of reloj fans out there and granted that's not unusual you can find fin PO shippers just as easily but the relationship between rae and kylo is very very important to analyze because remember it is entirely based on abuse every time she asks him for something he ignores her he doesn't actually care about her emotional well-being only what he can use her for and this is how women are responding to that abuse because of how Lucasfilm Disney handled the sequel trilogy women now see it as romantic that kylo forced his will upon her women find it romantic that he knocked her unconscious and kidnapped her women find it romantic that he tied her down and forced his way inside her without permission because of Lucasfilm Disney women see this abusive relationship as romantic films and TV shows are changing the way that women perceive themselves as they portray beautiful women desperately clinging to abusive men Rey is the exact portrayal of a lonely desperate woman being taken advantage of you have no place in my story you come from nothing you're nothing but not to me this is exactly the sort of abusive manipulation that men use in real life to degrade a woman into thinking she's absolutely worthless to everyone except the one man who is willing to love her because Adam driver is handsome and a fantastic actor and because all of the rape subtext was hidden beneath the surface women think this is romantic when in fact it is subconsciously teaching men that women love you when you abuse them and teaching women that being abused is what love looks like and guys this is important many women love this character he really resonates with many people because so many of us are desperate for love yet feel like we are worthless and don't deserve it kylo seems noble here willing to love her despite her not being worth anything but that's exactly the trap of the abusive spouse convincing you that you are worth nothing so you'll cling it desperately to your abuser from Ray's perspective there is nothing in this man that is worth saving Ben solo is worth saving yes but she never knew him the filmmakers had Ray developed feelings for the man who tortured and abused her and now the general public sees this toxic relationship as something desirable now I'm not saying that he was beyond saving Ben solo deserved to be saved from kylo just like Anakin was saved from Vader but the difference is that it needed to be Luke or Han or Leia that saved been having Rey developed feelings for him completely changes the subtext of her character because if you look at the hidden subtext of the force awakens it's not just the force and the rebels instance and the Jedi you can also see that it's a story about a beautiful orphan girl who found herself going on an adventure with a handsome prince only to be kidnapped and raped through the rape the young woman finds an inner strength she didn't know she had and she becomes powerful enough to fight off and kill the kidnapping rapist villain the subtext of the force awakens is beautiful it superluminal II tells an empowering story of female strength but any potential this film had was ruined by Ryan deciding to have Rey develop feelings for her rapist especially when you see how young many of the girls are who idolized Rey these girls are going to grow up thinking that this emotional abuse is what love looks like and for one more quick example this is a fascinating interview with Geena Davis about gender equality depicted on film and it confirms many many examples of misogyny that I have covered in this video it also shows how positive depictions of women can help in real life as a study found that 58% of people who watch the show said that they were more likely to vote for a female candidate for president after seeing her portrayal of a female president portrayal of women in film is vitally important to analyze because it absolutely affects how women are perceived in real life now I know how crazy all of this sounds conspiracy theories are fun but we all know there's never any substance to them but when it comes to film there is almost always a hidden deeper meaning that you have to look closely to see if a woman is knocked unconscious and something is stolen from her there is subtext there and with the sequel trilogy the amount of hidden subtext is astonishing [Music] [Music] everything [Music] did you notice the main plotline revolves around the white characters while the subplots all revolve around minorities now my point isn't that all princess stories are bad there's nothing wrong with women finding it romantic and desirable for a handsome strong prince to come rescue them my point is that we need to be aware of the underlying message especially when a character is being touted as being a progressive female role model next and bear with me here because this one gets awkward we have the incredibly odd fact that the last Jedi is absolutely teeming with yannick imagery this could mean anything from living in large caves symbolizing retreating to your mother's womb to leaving the mouth of a cave as symbolizing birth or rebirth to sexual pleasure or a sexual awakening the last Jedi is filled with symbols of womanhood [Music] kylo flies through a tunnel into the belly of his mothership the shuttles heading towards Krait look like sperm swimming towards an egg the dark caves are Yannick symbols of the womb the alien creature with breasts gives milk to feed Luke the pores are frequently shown with babies the borges have eggs laying everywhere the nuns are female now Yanik imagery isn't necessarily bad in fact the imagery of Luke being reborn through fire is one of the few things I loved about the film but consider all the other evidence I've presented showing time after time how the creators mistreated their female characters and I think we can all agree any yannick imagery we see must be very closely analyzed now I'm extremely thankful too I found this amazing analysis done by Mary Ann maid I'm just going to directly quote her she's already documented all the evidence perfectly I was cleaning my blaster and it went off is that what the kids are calling it especially when she could easily have told Luke what really happened and asked how to make sure it wouldn't happen again but no kylo is her secret yes even the green milk scene is to show Ray's initial discomfort with her sexuality there is a reason that the Sirens breasts look the way they do they could have easily made them look more like a cow udder but no we get two pairs of what look like very much to be human breasts being milked there is shot after shot after shot of them walking through cave walls with obvious Yanik openings then there's the shot of Ray looking into the hole that's surrounded by not-so-obvious seaweed and then her getting utterly soaked with water coming out of that knot suggestive a tall hole she points out the symbolism of the fact that kylo wipes the quote-unquote rain off of his mouth not off of his forehead or anything like that I pointed out this scene earlier but one thing that she mentioned that I had not thought of was the context of kylo taking off his glove right before they touched then there's the symbolism of burning the tree which I had never realized looks very much like a phallic object then she literally lets her hair down to go see him and puts on new clothes and arrives in a very glass like coffin nothing symbolically fairytale about that and I had definitely never noticed this about Kyler's lightsaber before with the definitely not a red vein running down the side yes there was definitely a lot of blatantly sexual female imagery but was any of that imagery actually positive [Music] [Music] [Music] these characters are utterly one-dimensional we have no idea what actually drives them Finn starts off with crippling PTSD and seems to be developing to be a deep character only for us to find out he doesn't actually care about his fellow stormtroopers and we have no idea what's actually motivating him to leave the first order and later after a brutal fight Finn nearly died yet it didn't affect him at all he should at least be terrified of kylo Ren now having flashbacks that experience had to have been scarring for him but he doesn't have any thoughts and feelings his personality never mattered to the writers or what about Poe what does Poe want Poe wants more than anything else to get off the command deck to be in an x-wing flying around blowing up the bad guys the script puts Poe where he is needed trying to shoehorn him into being a leader merely to advance the plot or hold oh why is she so secretive yes there may have been a spy on board and she may have been trying to protect people but why is she so secretive in the same situation anyone else would tell at least one or two other people because a leader needs confidence there is no character development that portrays hold o--'s personality she is only so secretive because she's a one-dimensional character meant to push the mutiny plot forward or Rose what does she want she's the one consistently talking about saving the resistance yet she instantly sacrifices the resistance to save Finn or was she doing it for her sister we know the motivation for the white men Snoke wants to wipe out the Jedi and the Republic Hux wants to establish a new empire kylo wants ultimate power Luke wants to be left alone to die they're still not extremely well developed characters but the men are definitely not as one-dimensional as every other female or minority character we see the real question is was this Ryan's ineptitude sexism and racial bias bleeding through into his writing or were these one-dimensional character portrayals intentional Ryan said he had a ton of trouble writing Poe and fin because all their dialogue was interchangeable they are different people from different backgrounds with different personalities nothing about them is interchangeable except their jacket these characters were written to be one-dimensional did not have any thoughts or feelings of their own the last Jedi was being heralded as a progressive film empowering for women with a record-breaking 43 percent of its dialogue being delivered by a woman but look closer they are almost always talking about men Leia and hold Oh had three-fourths of a conversation where the topic wasn't a man and that's it nearly all Ray's lines are out kylo or Luke or Finn nearly all hold those lines are about Poe nearly everything Leia says is in response to a man this film may have had a record-breaking 43 percent of female dialogue but try taking out every line where they talk about men and see how much of that 43 percent is left women are teachers now there's nothing wrong with being a teacher nothing wrong with women being teachers but it is a stereotype that women tend to be teachers more than men and this stereotype is very obviously reinforced with these films Maz teaches ray about the force ray attempts to teach Luke great attempts to teach kylo rose teaches Finn Leia teaches Poe hold o teaches Poe and making these characters consistently be teachers two men doesn't mean they are being placed in a position of authority but rather their character is being defined by whether or not there is a man that needs teaching did you notice this entire film is divided up into couples nearly every major subplot is about a man and a woman was this just poor writing or was it an intentional decision did you notice how thin is literally diminished in the international poster and how Rose is just blatantly cutout yes these posters are intended for other cultures with their own stigmas but Lucasfilm Disney could easily have said we support our actors and the characters they played and we're not cutting them out of the poster that forced did you notice they're trying to present the force as being Universal able to be used by anybody but they show us that only white people deserve to use it did Ryan introduce Rose and keep thin and very separate for nearly the entire film because minorities having relationships is fine but whites and blacks can't mix [Music] they shot and edited each film in subtle ways that made the females and minorities be subservient to white males the female characters were written in such a way that made them look incompetent weak and irrational Lucasfilm Disney laid the bait for fans to get upset fans got upset and they're upset was misinterpreted the media latched on to the misinterpretation and used the tiny minority of complainers to label all Star Wars fans as misogynist racists did Lucasfilm Disney intentionally incite the racist backlash or did they do it accidentally did Ryan intentionally give Leia a line talking about her hair to portray her as a stereotypically vain woman or did he do it accidentally did JJ intentionally tell Daisy to stand behind Jon time after time after time or did he not realize that his main character wasn't being properly framed in the shot did JJ intentionally write the first female stormtrooper to be a spineless coward was it intentional that every single female character has enormous flaws roses dialogue was stupid hold those actions were stupid Leia's judgment was stupid was it intentional that the first lead character who is a female Jedi was entirely dependent upon the big strong man giving her the ability to use the force was an intentional that when the woman punishes the man for being wrong it turns out he was right all along I have covered over 50 different examples of scenes that have hidden subtext against women and minorities and I'm positive there are many more examples that I have yet defined now I'll admit I haven't fully analyzed the other six films looking for anti-feminist undertones it's possible that they are present in every film because the scripts are all written mainly white men who aren't necessarily ill-intentioned but who just don't understand women or minorities well enough to properly write their characters but as far as positive female portrayals in Star Wars films go I do want to give credit to one film Gareth Edwards Tony Gilroy and their writers well done all of you after the frankly depressing results I had reviewing the other Lucasfilm Disney films analyzing rogue one was an utter reversal in this film women are empowered in every scene in every way they dress appropriately for their characters they act appropriately for their characters they have well-crafted dialogue beautifully choreographed fight scenes the women walk side by side with the men as equals not trailing behind them looking subservient the women experience physical pain exactly as the men do the women aren't portrayed as Barbie dolls obsessed with their looks they're dirty and grimy and messy and real the wife is strong and brave ignoring the traditional stereotype of protecting the child to go stand by her husband and instead trusting the child to defend herself the young girl is brave and smart and resourceful managing to stay hidden not just in this moment but for the rest of her life Jin's first seen as an adult sets the perfect tone for her character showing her being relatable as she starts off nervous at being captured only to show her toughness and skill in battle her character development was solid as we soon find out that she was the best fighter this brutal man had ever trained what kind of Jetta that's a war zone Trust goes both ways the brave man gives her a command and she refuses to obey not out of spite she doesn't insult him she doesn't patronize him she needs a gun he is being irrational he'll have to trust her for this to work and she calmly lets him know without getting emotional the woman darts into the thick of battle to save the child instead of having the stereotypical brave strong man be the hero we see time after time that Jin is an expert combatant trained in a variety of weapons both Jin and Ray were searching for their families except not really because even though ray talks about getting back to her family all the time she never once actually does anything about it Jin sees the opportunity to find her father and takes off on her own ray doesn't even try to go look for her family her depiction is the epitome of the stereotypical weak Disney princess who sits around waiting and only escapes from her dismal life when her prince rescues her Jin doesn't constantly start crying like Ray does she is strong and in control of her emotions I do wish they hadn't made the stereotypical decision to have the woman unable to face that her loved one died so she had to be rescued by her man but considering Jin had spent decades hoping to see her father again only to then have him die in her arms I could give this scene a pass Jin is insightful and unafraid to confront someone to their face and it's not just Jin that's amazing all of the women are when Mon Mothma walks in it's not as a secondary character but with an era of power she doesn't say a word yet she commands attention and respect look at the war council the women are featured prominently and equally we also don't see women relegated to the outside of the circle like they are in the last Jedi we even see a scene of the men lining up in respect before Jin owing to fight for her the woman gives the heroic speech not the men like in the last Jedi the man asks permission from the female leader to begin the attack instead of usurping her authority like PO constantly does to Leia everything that the other films did wrong this film got right whether it's their dialogue their physical positioning within the scene their wardrobe or their interactions with other men rogue one treats every single woman with respect while not shirking from showing the difference their physical stature beauty and femininity bring it to a scene well done Gareth Tony Chris Gary rogue one is a beacon of light in the gender equality movement and I truly hope it and its creative team gets the credits that they deserve for the effort they put towards is inclusiveness through subtle manipulation Lucasfilm Disney has pushed Star Wars fans towards very predictable reactions that incorrectly labels us as misogynist when in reality a majority of men love strong women especially when it comes to fantasy and sci-fi Lucasfilm Disney used the media to help promote these false labels driving away much of their male fanbase and furthering a divisive wedge between women and men everywhere the script for this video is now 27 pages long and there are likely dozens of additional examples of misogyny and racism I haven't yet discovered but I have now presented a mountain of evidence pointing towards the unavoidable conclusion that Lucasfilm or even Disney itself has a secret agenda against women and minorities a but as a very ironic conclusion I have to admit the possibility that all of this is a coincidence Lucasfilm Disney's setting up secret superluminal messages against women and minorities that's a conspiracy theory that just doesn't make sense to their overall financial strategy which if we're honest is all they really care about as a company it's far more likely that the writers and directors just didn't know how to properly write female or minority characters it's far more likely that most of the writers are white men that any subconscious biased against minorities leaked into their writing but they're not even consciously aware that they have these racist tendencies it's far far more likely that these hidden biases against women are present in all men and those biases just leaked through into the scripts the most logical conclusion is there is no agenda there is no conspiracy and every bit of evidence was a statistically unlikely coincidence but at the same time the staggering mountain of evidence I've uncovered has planted a growing seed of doubt in my mind because how many times can something happen before we stop considering it a coincidence [Music] [Laughter] [Music] she was more interested in protecting the light than she was seeming like a hero [Music]

Channel: Darth'd

Views: 33,478

Rating: 4.219512 out of 5

Keywords: star, wars, racism, video essay, misogyny, racist, the force awakens, JJ Abrams, The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson, TFA, TLJ, Rogue One, Disney, sequel trilogy, darthd, xxdarthdxx, darth'd, subtle, subconsc

Id: 9vzPAmm6L1g

Length: 112min 44sec (6764 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/saltierthancrait!

Please familiarize yourself with this post for the rules and guidelines of this sub before participating.

If you are experiencing any problems or have any issues, please use the report function or do not hesitate to contact our moderators directly. Remember, while STC is a community for discussion and critique, it is also peppered with satire. Take what you read here with a grain of... salt.

Thank you and May the Force Salt Be With You!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/jeffp12]

I think we have to acknowledgize that trying to come up with a single "this was the goal" theory is a wild goose chase. I think it comes down to a whole bunch of execs, the "Story group," the various writers and directors, all having different ideas and there isn't a cohesive plan for anything.

Based on some comments (e.g. Oscar Isaac talking about wanting Finn/Poe to be gay and "The disney overlords" weren't ready for that), it seems like they definitely came together in meetings and said things like "we want the main character to be female this time" and "what about a gay character?" and "what about an interracial relationship!?"

They clearly were wanting to do many of these things, and there's lots of comments about it. But then it seems like many of those ideas got shut down. Maybe it's Disney execs jumping in to shut it down for money reasons (e.g. minimize Finn for China, or cutting out the lesbian kiss in many countries).

Reading between some lines, I think they were debating between having a Rey/Finn interracial relationship, OR having Poe/Finn go gay (whether that's for shitty click-baity, money reasons, or for real "let's get positive representation for [group]).

And I think Disney shut down both of those angles and then threw the writers a terrible little bone with the 1.5 second lesbian kiss, and pretended like having a female main character is some kind of groundbreaking development.